Watching footage this morning of the AZ fires, I was stunned by the total absence of firebreaks around some of the homes under threat. I realise that in firestorm conditions a firebreak isn’t going to be a whole lot of use, but in a normal fire season it can well make the difference between saving and losing your property.
I really hope you guys get some favourable weather very soon. I can’t imagine how bad this could get by the end of summer if you don’t.
Just a small note. I used to live in Globe and names like ShowLow and Payson bring back memories. My heart goes out to those who’ve lost anything. My sincere wishes for an end to this fire.
Pat
They worked all day yesterday on a fire break. The fire jumped it. It’s so dry that fire breaks aren’t doing much good as the fire explodes from tree to tree. The Ponderosa Pine that’s burning is three times drier than kiln-dried lumber.
They HAVE managed to save about 2000 structures, they’re saying, through the use of fire retardants and foam-type stuff. About 400 have burned, though.
According to our weather folks here in Colorado, we were getting (and still getting) a lot of the smoke from the fires in AZ. They explained that is was a combination of two high systems east/northeast of the Rodeo Fire and a low system just northeast of us, pushing the smoke back up against our mountains.
On to saving homes. The forest service said that if home owners don’t do what is asked to clear the area in and around their home, the forest service fire fighters will by-pass that house and go to a house that has a better chance to survive the onset of a fire.
So, to all of you that live in forested areas, please contact your local fire district and find out what they recommend. I have heard conflicting reports but the minimum I have heard is clear all trees and brush in a 30 ft. perimeter. Keep trees in the inner perimeter trimmed up 8 feet and make sure that any native grass is mowed, but be careful with mowing, we had a fire just north of me that started from a riding mower.
This seems to be what I have heard the most in order to better the chances of saving your home. If the forest service sees that defendable space, they can minimizes the loss much easier and they aren’t going to put their employees in great danger to defend a house that has trees butted up against it.
The fire fighters did, in Show Low at least, go through town putting red tags on those houses that they didn’t think they could save. I know that this kind of triage is necessary, but it must be very hard for them to give up on some houses before the fire even gets there. From what I understand, the fire crews take these things very personally and hate admiting defeat to the fire.
Well, the smoke has arrived in Phoenix. I’m getting the scratchy throat feeling like the Colorado folks have had. Last night, it looked like a mushroom cloud. Now it’s REALLY hazy all over.
The red tags in Show Low are to designate high risk homes as targets for slurry bombers, not to mark them for abandonment under pressure…
The problem now is that under the heavy smoke, the slurry bombers are having a hard time accepting vectors to the targeted homes.
This may explain this “onset of a cold” feeling I’ve had today. Then again, maybe I’m just catching a cold.
What a fuckin freaky summer this has been so far, and it just started.
OY.
To those that have elderly and young ones under six in the path of the smoke, please keep them indoors and out of the smoke. It can be deadly. Also, other’s with asthma and other respiratory problems should stay indoors too.
They may have been marking houses as targets for the bombers, but they were also marking houses that they didn’t think that they could save. From an article in the East Valley Tribune 6/23/02:
I did not in any way intend to disparage the firefighters or the amazing job that they were doing, Tranquilis. As I have stated, I have nothing but admiration their effort, which is nothing short of heroic. This sad fact is just an indication of how bad things are and the difficult decisions that have had to be made.
Never said you slammed the firefighters, Linus. Here, This is one of the other articles addressing the red tags:
This, and several other reports, seems to indicate that rather than abandoning these houses, they’re getting special attention, at least until the flames get too close.
Tranquilis, sorry if I sounded a bit testy or defensive. I have a lot of fond memories of camping up on the Rim, and it really hurts to see so much of it destroyed by this. That is, of course, only my personal selfish reasons - I can hardly imagine what the people who are losing their homes are going through.
My guess is that either they were talking about two different types of flags on the houses, or the markings were used for both - early on, when the first story was writen (the 23rd), when they were afraid that the fire would sweep through like a storm, they marked the homes that would be too dangerous or time consuming to save; then later, when the fire didn’t progress into town like expected, they used those markings to denote the houses that needed special attention.
Again, sorry for the apparent testiness.
Well, for those that don’t know, they released Terry Barton on $600,000 bond. She is required to stay in a halfway house, she will be monitored (didn’t say how,) is not allowed hear a forest and either her passport was revoked or she is denied at getting one.